


Reaching Out for Someone

by Anonymous



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya Salt, F/M, Good Parent Gabriel Agreste, Lila salt, Nino salt, Protect Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Protective Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, class salt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29598225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Inspired somewhat by the "Rapist" prompt from orphan_account.Adrien has been falsely accused of something heinous, it's during this time that he discovers who really has his back.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 17
Kudos: 330
Collections: Anonymous





	Reaching Out for Someone

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Rapist](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27901579) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



"Adrien?" No response.

It didn't matter, she knew he was here, this was where he usually ended up when he was feeling overwhelmed and this was one of those moments. The stairwell at the back of the school was usually fairly quiet and thus the perfect place to hide, or in some cases transform.

As she uttered his name again, she heard a soft whimper under the stairs. There huddled up away from sight was poor little Adrien Agreste, she slowly scooted over and wrapped an arm around him as his hunched from melted in her embrace.

And the morning had started so well.

Adrien had arrived into class only to be met with a huddled mass of people and others glaring at him, as he headed closer he was shocked at what he saw. It was Lila, with what appeared to be a serious cut on her lip and a black eye. Before he could ask what the hell happened he was met with hostility from everyone around him.

"Wait, you can't possibly think that I did this!?" exclaimed Adrien, he looked around for some assurances that these accusations weren't being believed, but to no avail. He reached out Nino who backed away like he was on fire, Adrien was seriously at a loss here, he felt the walls closing in as the glares and yelling became too much to bear. He suddenly felt Kim scruffing his shirt collar about ready to deck him before he managed to break free and dash out the door.

Only to run into Marinette who clearly saw the fear and betrayal in the poor boy’s eyes.

"What the hell is going on here" Marinette exclaimed

Then she saw Lila's face and was visibly shocked. Sure she didn't like the girl but no one deserved this sort of treatment. Alya recapped what Lila had told them all through tears, turns out after their photoshoot last night Adrien made an advance on Lila, as she explained to them she wasn't willing to take it that far and he didn't seem to take that too well.

"You dodged a bullet there Marinette" exclaimed Alya with a look like she was going to kill someone.

Marinette honestly couldn't believe what she was hearing, there was no possible way Adrien would do this. The boy honestly didn't have a violent aggressive bone in his body. But then like always, Lila looks at Marinette and asks if she believes her.

Marinette was really starting to have a gutful of this girl and her crap, but right now things were incredibly hostile and questioning her would get them nowhere, instead, she got down to Lila's level and sympathetically replied "Of course I do, in fact I believe we need to tell the principal right away, we need to get the authorities involved. Something like this can not go unpunished."

She knew her classmates would be all on board with that, she also knew that Lila would start panicking and offering excuses like "Oh no I really can't" and then start blaming herself with statements like "maybe I gave him the wrong idea" that guaranteed that her classmates would all assure her that she wasn't at fault. Marinette used this moment to sneak out of the classroom to look for her poor friend.

Admittedly things hadn't been the best between the two the last few months regarding the Lila situation but she still held a soft spot for the boy and refused to let him get thrown to the wolves.

Which leads her to here, underneath the staircase holding him like an infant. Adrien finally perks his head up and she gets a good look at his bloodshot eyes and the look of fear on his face. She knew that here was not a safe place for him so she asked him for his phone, immediately dialled his bodyguard and before they knew it they were being escorted out. Sure, she would have to explain later why she ditched school but right now her only concern was Adrien.

Adrien had been eerily quiet the entire drive, only to finally utter two words.

"I'm sorry"

Marinette stared at him, did she actually hear that correctly.

"I should have listened to you when you talked about her lies hurting people" he replied downtrodden as he twiddled his thumbs "I guess this is what I deserve"

Marinette was on the verge of smacking him, but common sense made it through at the last minute as she exclaimed how no one deserves this, "Yeah you made a mistake, but no one, especially you deserve this over thier head" she said to him as she rubbed his hands as a mother would.

That's when the dam broke.

Adrien openly wept as he held Marinette close to him. Any other time and she would have become a blushy hot mess, but right now the momma bear instincts bestowed on her by her mother were too powerful as she rubbed Adrien's back to calm him down, suggesting once they talked to his father things would be ok.

"What the hell happened during that photoshoot yesterday?"

"Photoshoot? I didn't have one"

* * *

"Adrien, what are you doing here?" questioned Nathalie as she continued working on tablet.

Adrien took a deep breath and exclaimed how it was the utmost importance he speaks to his father immediately, naturally, this was denied by Nathalie informing him how "very very busy" his father was at the moment.

"I can assure you, whatever my father is doing is nothing compared to what I have to tell him"

There was something in his voice, his eyes, the way Miss Dupain-Cheng was trying to reassure him that were ringing all the alarm bells, something was certainly up. She sighed as she assured Adrien she would see what she could do, as she got up and walked to his office.

It felt like forever as the two waited, but amazingly Gabriel walked out of his office. His wingtip shoes clacking against the cold hard tiles with a look that screamed he was in no mood for his time being wasted. Before he could even ask though, Nathalie tapped him on the shoulder and showed her tablet to him and what appeared to be security footage of outside.

"What the hell?"

A loud banging on the door and declaration of police was heard, Gabriel nodded to Gorilla to open it, only to be met with several police officers. 

"Adrien Agreste, you are under arrest for suspicion of sexual assault"

The next several minutes felt like a blur, Adrien being handcuffed, his aggravated father being held back, Marinette's pleading with Lieutenant Raincomprix as Adrien screamed at his father that it wasn't true before being hauled out.

Gabriel could only stare in disbelief at what had just happened, before looking at Marinette.

"What the hell is going on?"

* * *

"YOU DID WHAT!?"

Sabrina explained again with the biggest smile about how he sent the photos of her injuries to her father who had just promptly arrested Adrien. 

Lila was, of course, panicking like crazy and this sudden situation knowing how it could all go pear-shaped at any moment. Once again she explained how she couldn't bear to get poor Adrien in trouble, but for once Alya finally put her foot down.

"Seriously Lila, this has got to stop. You need to stop being so forgiving. If all goes to plan, you won't even need to testify"

"T.t.testify?!"

Sabrina assured her that his father would surely get a confession out of Adrien and that the case wouldn't even need to go to trial. As this was all going on, Marinette sat in the back of the classroom, ready to snap the pencil she was holding. After explaining to Gabriel what had happened, he assured her that it would all be taking care of as she was sent back to school. she was even given his mobile number in case of any updates.

By now, Adrien had run out of tears, right now he felt pretty much empty as he waited alone in an interrogation room. He refused to answer any questions the police officers had asked of him and that mood wasn't going to change any time soon. In just a few minutes, he was either going to be questioned more, or put back in that holding cell. Right now, he just didn't care about anything at all.

As the Lieutenant unsympathetically burst in again and asked again about the accusations Adrien was close to shutting down completely, suddenly the door swung open hard and at least half a dozen men and women in suits walked in being lead by Gabriel himself.

"DAD" exclaimed Adrien as he clung to his father sobbing as he kept saying how he didn't do it. While it was clear that Gabriel was far from accustomed to human contact like that anymore, He patted his son's head and assured him everything would be ok.

Adrien was no stranger to his father’s strick and stern tone, but there was something completely different witnessing it directed at someone else. Gabriel was bastardizing the police officers for arresting a 16 year old boy with no arrest warrant on what was essentially hearsay, highlighting the connection between the Lieutenant’s daughter and his son was incredibly unprofessional and grounds for serious litigation.

Of course, the police officer proceeded to show off the photos Sabrina had taken of Lila’s injuries and the video recording of her explaining what happened. At this point, Gabriel nodded to his group of lawyers who proceeded to unload their briefcases. Inside were absolutely troves of gold, eyewitness and testimonies from not just Italy but half of Europe about Lila Rossi.

Apparently, she had done this before.

Numerous accounts of boys being accused of harassment or sexual assault by one Lila Rossi only for the charges to never ever stick, but by the time that had come to light, Lila had already left the country with nothing but destruction in her wake. One boy from Italy refused to date her and was left ostracized from the rest of his school after she came in one day battered and bruised with the accusations. Soon enough, it was him that would end up being battered and bruised by his classmates until it came out that the whole thing was a lie, that the boy was actually gay and in a relationship at the time, if only he hadn’t ended up in a wheelchair before hand.

There was an even more tragic story from Greece with virtually the same modus operandi, but this time it ended with the boy taking his own life.

While this was indeed concerning there was still the issue of Lila and what had happened to her face, another lawyer opened their briefcase, this one containing surveillance footage of the Agreste mansion and surrounding areas which showed that Adrien never left the house the day before, nor was there even a fashion shoot yesterday as Lila had supposedly claimed. But if anyone had been committing sexual assault here, it wasn’t Adrien. One thing he wouldn’t admit was how invasive Lila would be when they actually worked on photoshoots, touching him inappropriately and refusing to follow orders properly, this had not gone unnoticed by Gabriel who had gotten at least a dozen sworn affidavits from people on set including the cameraman Vincent and the makeup ladies describing the scenes that involved Lila and Adrien

This was all getting seriously concerning, Lieutenant Raincomprix had to agree that all this evidence was compelling and that Lila would need to be brought in to confirm her story, he looked at Adrien and asked as gently as possible as to why he was targeted by this girl. Adrien looked at his father and all the suits who nodded in approval, he then began to describe the tale of how Lila wouldn’t stop lying to her friends, wouldn’t stop harassing Marinette and had recently asked, or more likely demanded that they take their relationship to the next level. Adrien, of course, refused this proposal and her only response was “You’ll be sorry”

Gabriel looked like he wanted to punch a wall, a window, anything, but he composed himself enough to suggest that Adrien be let go immediately, it was clear that Roger was in no place to argue with the amount of legal muscle at his disposal and agreed to release him. As Gabriel lead Adrien out of the precinct, he slowly rubbed his back.

“Thanks, dad, those lawyers were amazing in there”

“With the amount I pay them, they better be”

Adrien stared out the window, as the late afternoon sun was setting, hoping that this would all blow over soon. But Gabriel and Nathalie’s reactions told a different story, in the last few hours this was all everyone had been talking about on social media. When Adrien was detained, they had confiscated his phone which was now overflowing with messages, Twitter and Instagram notifications were nothing new for the young model, but seeing messages from people he supposedly called his friend were what really broke his heart

_“I can’t believe you would do this”_

_“Never speak to me again”_

_“I’m blocking you everywhere”_

_“You are dead to me Adrien, DEAD”_

_“May you rot in prison, you bastard”_

It was clear that the outside of the mansion was going to be a madhouse with reporters and protestors wanting the poor boy’s head on a stick. They asked Adrien if there was anyone that would be willing to let him stay. While most of his friends had obviously cut him off, there was one obvious choice.

As soon as she saw him at the front door, Marinette rushed into his arms asking if everything was ok, after having the situation explained to them, Marinette’s parents were more then happy to let Adrien hide in the guest bedroom. Nathalie would return later with supplies, but right now all Adrien wanted to do was just lay in bed and fall asleep.

It was around 1am when Marinette heard soft weeping coming from downstairs, she had wanted to give Adrien as much privacy as possible but she softly made her way to the guest bedroom and found him hunched in the bed, she slowly scooted him over so she could wrap her arms around him. She softly stroked his head, hoping this would calm him down somewhat, whispering that it would all be ok.

He looked at her, she looked at him. The moonlight was creeping into the window at just the right angle, bathing Marinette’s face in a soft glow. He leaned in and softly pecked her lips, and to his surprise, she did it in return. After testing the waters they both dived in, their lips around each other and Marinette running their fingers through his hair. It doesn't sound the most ideal way to finally get together, but after the day he’s had she only hoped this offered him some comfort.

They were woken at the crack of dawn by Adrien’s phone only to discover the tangled mess they had gotten themselves in with the blanket with Adrien laying on top, as they got out of the bed they knew they had to discuss last night but right now there were more important things to worry about. As Adrien happily scarfed down his seventh croissant he was on the phone with Nathalie discussing the current situation, for the time being, he should just stay low at Marinette’s house and keep out of sight. Tom gleefully exclaimed that he was going to take Adrien into the kitchen and teach him how to bake all kinds of stuff which he was absolutely giddy about. 

As Marinette walked into school, she could instantly tell the aura flowing through the halls. Everyone was hushed and whispers, no doubt talking about the news that had been in all the papers this morning, when she reached the classroom she could tell that Lila was on edge, goading Sabrina for any information about the arrest. But apparently, even Sabrina was in the dark about what was going on as her father was no longer telling her anything. As far as everyone knew, Adrian was still with the police. Classes were just about to settle down when Marinette swore she heard the ground shake.

“LILA MARIANNE ROSSI”

The door burst off, almost falling off and showing a woman who was unmistakably Lila’s mother with a frantic Mr Damocles and two police officers. She stormed up to her daughter’s desk and demanded to know why she had accused ANOTHER boy of sexual assault. While Lila desperately tried to assure that this was all a big misunderstanding and not a big deal.

“Not a big deal! Then how come I have just been told that Leonardo ended up in a wheelchair or how that poor boy Dmitri killed himself, you telling me those aren't big deals". It was clear that her mother had been somewhat aware of the goings on of her daughter but it seems that Nathalie had paid the women a visit

Lila looked around and realised she was losing grip on the situation fast, as her mother explained to everyone in the class how she had made a history of crying rape. Alya was seriously struggling to comprehend everything that she had heard.

"Ok, I admit it, I may have…..exaggerated….before, but just look at my face mum, look at what Adrien did toGAHHHH"

Lila didn't get to finish her tirade as her mother had fished something out of handbag and just whacked her daughter across the face with it.

Makeup remover.

Lila looked on in horror as a huge streak of her black eye and bruises had seemingly just been washed away, and her hold on the classroom with it. Alya had to be physically restrained screaming obscenities like a drunken sailor as everyone else had a mixture of shock, embarrassment and guilt on their face. 

"Lila Rossi, you are under arrest for sexual harassment, assault and filing false police reports”

Marinette smirked from her seat in the back, she couldn’t wait to tell Adrien this.

* * *

“How do I look” asked Adrien as he adjusted his tie for the eighth time that hour. Marinette grumbled as she adjusted it properly for him before pulling him in for a quick kiss

“You're gonna be fine, I will be right next to you every step of the way” while Lila had been arrested and the obvious bogus charges against Adrien had been dropped, everyone agreed that there was still going to be that lingering doubt about him and his image.

Thankfully his new girlfriend knew one of Paris’s most esteemed tv presenters. The two were set up in Marinette’s living room about to give Nadja the worldwide exclusive about the recent hell Adrien had endured, for the next hour Adrien and Marinette described everything that occurred since Lila had come into their life, the special was watched by at least several million people around France and parts of Europe, they had even managed to wrangle an interview with Leonardo who had just started to gain some feeling back in his legs and the mother and sister of Dimitri while detailing many of Lila’s transgressions across Europe, while not knowing yet, this was going to open up the floodgates on many other victims who had been silenced throughout the years. Leonardo and Dimitri were just the tip of the iceberg.

When the topic about Adrien’s friends came up and if he can ever see himself forgiving and trusting them again, all Adrien could think about was how Nino turned his back on him, how Kim was about to clobber him and just all of those hateful messages on his phone. Marinette squeezes his hand assuringly while giving him that warm loving smile.

“I don’t think I could ever truly forgive them, I can understand why you would react when you hear accusations like that. But I was never even given a chance to explain my side of the story, the fact they could even think I would do something so heinous shows that maybe they never truly knew me at all. Maybe I might forgive them one day” Adrien stated while rubbing Marinette’s knuckles “But as long as I have _mi’lady_ next to me, I feel I can take on the world’

The sweet kiss between the two young lovers was the perfect ending to the special.

Sadly, Adrien stuck true to his promise, when he finally showed up again on Monday everyone was either too wrapped in guilt to look at him or in Nino's case, grovelling, but Adrien wasn't having it as he brought up the day the accusations were made, how everyone immediately abandoned him, not to mention bringing up all the messages he received. Adrien just found himself sitting in the back with Marinette, hopefully, all their flirting wouldn't get too distracting.

Adrien would eventually forgive his classmates, but things were never quite the same. Lila on the other hand was remanded to a juvenile detention facility where she was diagnosed wither a severe case of narcissistic personality disorder and essentially shut off from the word in a psychiatric facility where she would never hear from her former classmates again, even the news several years later about Adrien Agreste proposing to his designer girlfriend right on the catwalk during her show.


End file.
